An NHL head coach is part master strategist, part motivational speaker, part sports psychologist, part confidant to the world’s best players and part boss controlling their minutes and roles. It’s a lot to handle, especially for a first-time NHL head coach such as the Florida Panthers’ Bob Boughner.

For Boughner, his development in the first year leading a NHL team has largely gone unnoticed or unrecognized as his team makes a playoff push in the final month. Players have lauded Boughner’s structured systems as a main reason behind their recent resurgence since the All-Star break. They’ve embraced his player-friendly style that welcomes clarity and conversation.

“If what you’re saying is meaningful and it’s the right thing and it’s said in the right way and said in a way that guys can understand it, you’re always going to get the right response out of players,” Panthers captain Derek MacKenzie said. “We’re all pretty honest with ourselves, and you don’t sometimes want to hear it. When you’re hearing the right things, it’s hard to argue with that. He’s got a great bead on all those things.”

Added defenseman Aaron Ekblad: “He’s not afraid to lay into some guys. He’s a good motivator in the sense that he knows when you’re down and you need to be brought back up. Or maybe you’re sitting too high and not doing enough, he knows how to knock you down. He’s got a great feel for how players need to be pushed.”

The Panthers entered Friday outside of the Eastern Conference playoff picture. They trail both Columbus and New Jersey for the two wild card spots, but have played three fewer games than both teams. What once looked like a long shot to qualify for the postseason is now realistic, thanks to a 15-4-1 record since the All-Star break.

Panthers center Vincent Trocheck did not practice on Wednesday morning, but is expected to play against Boston on Thursday night, coach Bob Boughner said.

Trocheck absorbed a hard hit on Monday night from Ottawa’s Tom Pyatt at the end of the second period, but returned to the game for the third...

Florida will try to bounce back Thursday night against Boston following Monday’s loss to Ottawa. The Panthers have not lost back-to-back home games since early December.

Boughner deserves some credit for the Panthers turnaround.

He’s seemingly optimized his top two lines by splitting up Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau to create more scoring depth. He compensated for a lack of forward depth earlier this season by allowing his best players — Barkov and Vincent Trocheck — to play the most minutes, even if Micheal Haley has only missed one game this season. He’s been careful with Roberto Luongo’s time on the ice, and generous with giving the 38-year-old maintenance days.

Plus, he stuck to his systems when the Panthers opened the season 4-8-2.

“There was probably a time there where he could have started second-guessing it,” MacKenzie said. “But he stuck to what he believed in and believed in the guys capable of doing it. Now, I think we’re seeing the result.”

Boughner has been a head coach before in the Ontario Hockey League, leading the Windsor Spitfires to two Memorial Cups in Canadian junior hockey. He was an assistant coach for a season in Columbus and two years in San Jose.

But he said he’s “probably learned the most” this season how to properly convey his message to players.

“It can’t be the same thing every day,” Boughner said. “You have to make sure that your adjustments to practice, to drills, to video, to meetings, those things, you got to make sure that it’s constantly a fresh message. Same thing with the guys. I think the guys are looking for answers, whether it’s a win or a loss or anything like that, you got to make sure that when you get in front of these guy, that the message is real clear.”

Early in the season, Boughner said he was more focused on the personal side of coaching. He conducted one-on-one meetings with players and educated himself on their styles. He felt them out, just as they were feeling him out. But as the season nears April, the conversations have become easier, and more hockey-related.

“As the season’s gone on, we all feel comfortable,” Boughner said. “Obviously, it’s my first year, I feel more comfortable and you get to learn your players. I know them better than I did back in September. I know certain buttons to push with certain guys and what works and what doesn’t. I probably had to learn that.”

For Ekblad, an alternate captain for the Panthers, Boughner is a familiar face. The two are both from Windsor, Ontario, and have known each other for close to a decade. Ekblad became friends with Boughner’s son, and Boughner recalls Ekblad spending many days on the couch.

Ekblad said Boughner talks to players about effort, almost independent of the results on the ice.

“There’s working hard and bad bounces, and there’s not working hard and things not going your way,” Ekblad said. “When you’re not working hard and things are going your way, he’s going to let you know that you got to start doing the right things. Things are going your way right now, they might not in the future kind of thing. That’s kind of the message I’ve gotten from him. You got to work hard every single night and if things don’t go your way, they don’t go your way.”

Boughner: “We do a little bit of everything, but I think at the end of the day, as a hockey player, when I used to play, you always want your head coach to be honest, transparent and you never want to think [about] what’s he’s thinking of you.”